Unleashing the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve won't hurt Russia

The West needs a different way of reining in Putin

Putin
(Image credit: (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Presidential Press Service))

In the wake of Russia's invasion of Crimea, the U.S. and Western Europe are considering punitive measures to keep Vladimir Putin's territorial ambitions in check. The main methods used thus far have been visa denials, asset freezes, and travel bans for regime officials, the idea being that if they want to be part of the international community — which entails travel privileges and access to Western businesses and financial services — then they must refrain from opportunistic land grabs in Eastern Europe.

A more drastic measure floating around is the idea of undercutting Russia's oil-dependent economy by bringing down the price of oil. The proposal for economic warfare was outlined by Steve LeVine at Quartz last week:

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John Aziz is the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate editor at Pieria.co.uk. Previously his work has appeared on Business Insider, Zero Hedge, and Noahpinion.